On August 14-18 the Canandaigua Yacht Club in upstate New York will be hosting a truly special regatta, the 50th National Ensign Championship. Around 45 boats are expected to attend; not bad for a full-keel racer-daysailer in this age of carbon fiber and bowsprits. Gary Jobson, president of US Sailing, will be a keynote speaker at the event.Designed by Carl Alberg, the Ensign was inducted
Why let a sailboat race stand in the way of a party? This question has been asked many times, sometimes seriously, other times at an exaggerated angle of heel. But I assure you that the question has never been answered more boldly than at Long Point Race Week, which is hosted by the Balboa and Newport Harbor yacht clubs. For three days in August (26-28th) many of the best sailors in Southern
The opening two days of the first-ever World Series racing in the 34th America’s Cup gave spectators in Cascais, Portugal, plenty of brilliant views of the lightning-quick AC45s. Here, SAIL brings the racing (and some of the shots) to you. The weekend offered racing at both ends of the spectrum: Saturday dawned grim and cloudy, with conditions that normally would
A capsize in the 103rd Chicago Mackinac Race that took the lives of Mark Morley and Suzanne Bickel highlighted the dangers inherent in offshore racing and brought out the best in the competitors who responded to the accident.Ironically, in this era of EPIRBs and other technological miracles, it was a simple whistlerequired equipment for all Mackinac racersand a half dozen rescue lights
A capsize in the 103rd Chicago Mackinac Race that took the lives of Mark Morley and Suzanne Bickel highlighted the dangers inherent in offshore racing and brought out the best in the competitors who responded to the accident.Ironically, in this era of EPIRBs and other technological miracles, it was a simple whistlerequired equipment for all Mackinac racersand a half dozen rescue lights
A capsize in the 103rd Chicago Mackinac Race that took the lives of Mark Morley and Suzanne Bickel highlighted the dangers inherent in offshore racing and brought out the best in the competitors who responded to the accident.Ironically, in this era of EPIRBs and other technological miracles, it was a simple whistlerequired equipment for all Mackinac racersand a half dozen rescue lights
Beyond aerodynamic efficiency, wings bring one special, not so obvious quality to multihull sailing flotation. The forward element and each of three flaps in the aft element on an AC 45 are airtight and buoyant. As long as the wing stays in place, the boat will not turn turtle.I’m figuring the rest of America’s Cup 34 floats, too, but that’s not for lack of doomsayers on the
SAIL’s Best Around the Buoys is a contest designed to reward local sailors for their racing achievments and inspire them to compete in major national racing events across the country.
Guy Wilding has been out for a paddle in his 18-foot kayak every day for months, since moving to Honolulu from Sydney, Australia. July 20 seemed like any other day under the blue skies of the tradewinds until, as luck would have it, his paddle broke and he was dumped into the drink. This wasn’t good, but Wilding swam to the kayak and grabbed on. He tried to get in – to “rescue,” in kayak-speak –
The 89-strong fleet in this years Marblehead to Halifax Ocean Race enjoyed near-perfect conditions, with three boats beating a race record that had stood for 22 years.First to finish was Jim Grundys 75-foot Bella Pita, designed by Bill Tripp, which completed the 363-mile course in 30 hours, 46 minutes and 52 seconds. Will Apolds 78-foot Swan, Valkyrie, from Halifax,
Almost anywhere a sailor drops the hook someone else has been there before. We are hardly ever the first. That remote Maine harbor without a
During the pandemic, I was stuck aboard Guiding Light, a Lagoon 410, in St. Lucia for over a month. During that time, as I worked
Anacortes, Washington, is an unassuming sea-salty town near the San Juan Islands of Puget Sound, and the Betts Boats yard is easy for a passerby
The Xquisite X5 Plus is a major update of the boat that SAIL awarded Best Large Multihull and Best Systems titles in 2017. The changes
When I began preparing Minx, my 1987 Pearson 39-2, for extended Caribbean cruising, I had to balance my champagne wish list against my beer budget.
The decision to host the next America’s Cup in Barcelona ruffled the feathers of some fans, but the Defender is happy with how the venue
Elan’s first sporty “Grand Turismo” yacht, the 43ft GT5, launched in 2017, and was actually a bit of a mash-up. It combined an existing go-fast
The days of multihulls being the weirdos of the sea are gone. Nothing illustrated this better than the 2021 Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC), which
There is, of course, nothing new about bowsprits—sailing ships have been using them for centuries. That said, these days they are more popular than ever
